Lesser of five evils
by dan heron
Summary: Halo Metroid. A group of 10 bounty hunters accidentally crosses paths with a UNCS vessel while escaping from the Kriken. UNCS soldiers doesn't really trust aliens. Good thing the Spartans are on their way to handle the situation. /Discontinued
1. Chase that Hunter

Yes, I gave in! I did it! A Metroid Halo Crossover… Shame on me! …. Oh well, I'll get over it. This monstrosity was mostly inspired by my love for the Metroid franchise and the fact I lack ideas for other things at the moment. The other inspiring part was that most HaloMetroid crossovers always have a watered down version of the Metroidverse, like, let's say, the Chief using a shotgun and shredding Samus' armor apart. Ok, if Samus can survive an industrial sized mining laser shot directly at her for several minutes without damages to her armor, I think she can take a shotgun's slugs.

Now, said that, I'm a lazy guy who can't bother himself to buy all the books so he relies on other people's knowledge and some research he does in the internets, so if anybody ever feels like helping me to polish the Haloverse details, feel free to send me a note.

Halo stuff belongs to somebody else.

Metroid stuff belongs to somebody else.

**From the collection of One too many Shots, Crossovers section:**

**Lesser of five evils**

_Chapter 1: Wait, chapter 1? This is an oneshot_

By: **_Dan Heron_**

"Yum! Chemicals!" an impish voice exclaimed in glee. The voice belonged to a woman sitting on a metallic chair. Said metallic chair was next to a metallic table. And all the previous elements were right in front of another woman. "Ah, it's been so long since I had such filling meal! Chemical heavy purified water, and a preservers filled sandwich taken right from an expending machine, these guys really know how to treat a lady. Sure you don't want yours?"

"Please, I beg you," the other female replied, pulling behind her ear a lose strand of her long blond hair. Blue eyes looked on with a mix of irritation and amusement as the pink woman in front of her dug in.

It wasn't the pinkish hue most Caucasians shared, but a true pink color; that added with her electric purple colored eyes, and darker shade of pink on her hair, enhanced the alien look on her despite the obvious Human origin. Her partner was obviously a Human with slight Asian features on her face, and at least a foot taller than her partner, standing well over six foot and a couple inches tall.

The only remarkable thing besides her height was the fact her lower half was covered in golden armor with a slight organic look, and two bands of green light running at both sides from her hips to her knees.

"Leave my water alone," the blond warned as a pink hand made an attempt for the bottle.

"Have I told you I like that look on you?" the smaller female commented, pointing to the skin-tight blue top worn by her partner.

" I feel naked," the blond admitted, crossing her arms over her generous bosom. One of said arms was incased in armor of the same style than her legs, but that was all.

"Poor Sammy," the pink woman giggled, munching down the last bit of her second sandwich. "Why didn't you start before?" she inquired as she saw "Sammy" pouring her bottled water in one of the empty plates.

"I couldn't have focused with your chewing. What are you, a starving sheegot?"

"Hey!"

She only got a chuckle as reply. Once the plate was filled with water, the blond trained her eyes on the clear surface. "If I don't come back in an hour, or something shows up-."

"I know, I know. We already went through this before."

"Take care Gandrayda."

"You too Sammy."

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Admiral Christian Jackson made his way down to the small room where they had locked the two females. He had considered it "nice enough" to give them something other than a holding cell in light that one of them wasn't armed and the other had been stripped off most of her armor, leaving only the cybernetic implants necessary to allow her free movement.

Another show of good will.

As for the rest of his "guests", showing the same kindness would have undoubtedly proven a big mistake. One of the cyborgs in the group had just hacked into his ship's mainframe, locked the AI in a small corner, and invaded the rest of the ships flying with his vessel a matter of seconds later. Sure, the synchronized attack that had ensued on the sudden invasion of a new race of aliens –minutes later-, had been the quickest and most efficient victory he had witnessed since the beginning of his career, but that was beyond the point.

He ordered the removal of the AI's in the two cyborgs, and sent the rest of the aliens to the prison's cells, keeping a heavily armored watch over the human in blue armor. He had claimed he was unable to remove the armor, and the ship's scanners hadn't managed to come up with enough information to disprove or agree with the statement, so Jackson simply gave him a warmer welcome party.

There had been a "small" problem with the largest of the aliens. It was by far bigger than the largest Hunter he had seen in the battlefield, so the cells were out of option. The alien was finally located in the cafeteria with several M247 trained on it. Fortunately, only a few of the aliens had been carrying weapons, so they surrender fairly quickly.

The admiral stopped for a moment before letting out a grunt. There had been a pair of _insects_ among the aliens. A huge, yellow larva like bug, as big as one of his marines, crawling faithfully to comply with the orders, and the other looked like an oversize red, three-legged spider. A spider with a head floating off the body.

How in the hells had these two creatures managed to pilot two gunships and perform so well in outer space fight was beyond his comprehension.

And it gave him another reason to distrust this group.

Luckily his worries would be for nothing in a few minutes.

They were already in their way to the ship.

He nodded to the guards placed in front of the ladies room and they allowed him entry with a salute. He stepped through the door right in time to see the pink alien tapping the Human's hand. The blond woman blinked, looking away from a plate in front of her in his direction.

_Curious_, Jackson thought. The alien moved off her seat, walking around to sit with her partner and Jackson took the seat in front of them. He was a tall man, and he sat as straight as he could, making sure his insignias were clearly visible on his chest.

By the way the blonde's eyes narrowed he was sure she had gotten the message.

He allowed a few seconds of silence.

"I hope the room isn't too uncomfortable," Jackson started with the pleasantries.

The pink woman smiled broadly. "Oh, don't worry honey. We have had worst".

_Honey?_ Jackson thought with irritation. The blond may be aware of who she's dealing with, but this woman was probably a civilian. This could prove useful. "Miss, I was under the impression none of you had been able to communicate with us for a while before you started to translate for both sides," the admiral friendly said, "Are you familiar with English?"

"Not really," she said with a shrug, "My people have a knack for finding patterns and stuff. Same thing goes with languages."

She's lying, he knew. Only a few words had been traded, and this alien was already fluent in an unknown language. Let her think they don't know. "Besides the cyborgs, somebody else is capable of understanding English?"

"English, that's what you call it?"

Irritation grew once again in Jackson. "Yes, that's what it is called."

"No sir, they don't." She then turned to her partner and said something in an alien language. The admiral only understood the word "English" from the gibberish they spoke. A giggle escaped from the pink alien. "They don't know how to, eh, _grunt_, like that."

Impatience started to settle in. "There are a few things I would like to ask you, miss."

"Hadn't we already started doing that?" the alien exclaimed in confusion and the admiral grinded his jaw tighter.

"What is your origin system?"

"Tallon. Tallon V actually. Where are we going now?"

" That is none of your concern. Now-."

"It isn't? But, you guys took our ships and put us in this room. Where are we going?" she repeated.

"That is none of your concern," Jackson simply replied, sitting straighter than before. "Now," he said, giving a hard look to the alien, "What were you doing in the system."

"Running away from the Kriken," the small woman replied with a pout. "But you never told us-."

"Why were you piloting fighters?" Jackson interrupted her.

"You need weapons to stop Kriken," the alien mournfully answered. "They don't care much about diplomacy. We told you we nee-."

"How could the cyborg hack into our systems that quickly?" the admiral interrupted once again.

"I don't know," she sheepishly replied. "I'm not good with machines. Now sir-."

"Are there more aliens in the system?"

"Sir, please, just-."

"Are there more aliens in the system?"

"Excuse me-."

"Are there more aliens in the system?"

"Hey!" the alien suddenly stood up, but Jackson remained unfazed. He could feel the Human's eyes on him, but he didn't pay her attention. "Sir, I'm answering all your questions, now it's only polite you answer mine! Where are my friends? When are you gonna let us go? Where are we going?! Answer me, please!" the petite alien screamed, her cheeks flushing lightly.

"Nothing forces me to comply with that, and I have no reason to do so either," the admiral coldly replied and the woman seemed to shrink. "You, in the other hand, are in my ship, under my watch, at my command."

That was partly true. Ever since the end of the Covenant's holy war, Human and Sangheili had started to develop behavior protocols, including some when it came to deal with the other Covenant races in order to avoid hostilities.

However, this group of aliens didn't figure in the information shared by their new allies. The alien in front of him had never been part of the Covenant, therefore, without protection of these protocols.

The pink alien turned to the blond human and whispered something in their gibberish language. The blond shot him a glare, but the reply was short and the pink alien lowered her head in defeat.

"Are there more aliens in the system?" Jackson repeated once again, using the harshest tone he could muster.

"No sir… Kriken only use a few scouts, and we took them down before we met with you."

"Are there more of your _'friends'_ in the system?" Jackson spat the word.

"No sir, we were the only ones who made it."

"Made it?"

"Escape the Kriken," she softly replied, looking to the table.

"These Kriken are going to send more ships after you?"

"I'm not sure sir. We kinda reached this system by accident."

_Then, maybe I should just blast their ships into the debris of the other ships,_ he thought. These _Kriken_ had been defeated, but only with the use of an AI –far more advanced than anything the present ships could offer- orchestrating all the present ships, and the support of the nine gunships, all equipped with technology intel reported being more advanced than the used by the Covenant.

Yes, dismantling the ships, taking these weapon and computer systems, and disposing of them with the rest of the invaders junk sounded like a good idea.

The admiral stiffened and he looked at the blond woman. He could feel the cold coming from those blue eyes, but couldn't suppress the shudder running up his spine.

Was she even Human? The Luminary installed by the Sangheili to help Human vessels to find survivors in space hadn't showed Human activity in these ships, and he was starting to wonder if the machine was malfunctioning, or it was right and this was a group of aliens with a couple Human look alike.

"Is-is that all, sir?" the alien's meek voice brought him back from his reverie, and the admiral focused his attention back on the weaker alien.

"How many Kriken were following you?"

"Only a few, the ones we destroyed."

"Is it possible they will send reinforces after this group doesn't report back?"

"Maybe."

"How big is the Kriken fleet?"

"Huge!" the little alien almost shouted. "This was just a little group of them."

"The red insect-."

"Red insect?"

"The one among your friends."

"That red insect has a name! Trace!"

"His ship was awfully similar to the Kriken's."

"Ah… ye-yes, Trace is a Kriken… But it's not like what you think! They disowned him! He became a criminal when he joined us! He's a good guy!"

The admiral made a noncommittal sound as he slowly closed his hands. "Well, that will be all for the moment," he said as he stood up. He could still feel the blonde's eyes drilling a hole in his skull, but he did his best to ignore it. He needed to dispose of these ships, contact UNSC and inform them about this possible new threat for Earth.

They had just ended decades of war with the Covenant and now this shit happened!

"Ah-uh wait! Please! Sir, just answer me a question, please?" the pink woman stood up, pleading.

Christian stopped for a moment and spared a look on her. "I think I can do that much," he replied in a tired voice.

The alien looked to her partner and they exchanged a little conversation. If Jackson hadn't tried to tune down the gibberish he could have missed the only word that made sense in English.

_Earth_.

"Well then," the pink woman said in a voice the admiral couldn't recognize. It no longer was shy, childish, insecure…

It was smoky, husky, seductive…

"Samus here told me: 'Hey, Gandrayda, why don't you ask him, what Earth is', so I told her: "Sure, I'll ask him'," the pink woman said, giving him a predatory grin, leaning her body over the table. "So… what _is_ Earth?"

The admiral's mind drew a blank for a moment.

Then, he thought, _What kind of Human would ask what Earth was?_

Next thought was simpler. This woman wasn't Human.

Then, How could she know about Earth?

Finally, he realized he was carrying a weapon with him, just in case.

"No, no, no," the pink alien shook her head, clicking her tongue, "That's a bad, bad admiral! You shouldn't point guns at cute and innocent ladies! Now Samus will have to punish you."

"Stand back with your arms above your head, do it now!"

"Nope."

"Do it or I will shot you!"

"You'd need a gun for that," the alien replied, shrugging her small shoulders.

Admiral Jackson needed a moment to realize what the alien meant by that. Then he blinked, wondering where his gun was.

"Told ya," the alien giggled and the admiral looked up just in time to see the blond woman crushing his gun in her bare hand. The towering woman said something to the pink alien and she in turn said to Jackson. "Turn around, please. We gotta make sure you won't do something silly like that again."

As the two females came around the table, Jackson wondered the merit of calling for help, but the speed displayed by the blond woman dissuaded him from that idea. At least if he remained conscious he could think of some way to get out of this situation.

The admiral turned around and felt his arms pulled down to his back. "This plasteel is made by Samus, so don't bother trying to break free," the alien chirped, circling the admiral's shoulders with her arm. "Don't worry, it'll dissolve… in a few days. Until then, hold tight, and ask somebody help to go to the bathroom," she replied, letting out a rich laugh as she forced him down on a chair. The taller female came around and glued him to the chair and the chair to the floor.

"Don't get up, we will find our way out," the pink alien winked at Jackson.

The blond woman walked calmly towards the reinforced door, and without stopping, slowly lifted her leg. A moment later the doors flew off, impacting the other side of the corridor and leaving the guards posted outside in a dazzle for a moment; enough time for the two femmes to incapacitate them and disappear from the admiral's range of vision.

Sounds of surprise and fight immediately broke off.

The aliens would probably try to free the other prisoners, recover the cyborg's AI's, and then look for their ships.

Enough time so the Spartans could arrive and save his crew.

+-+-+-+-+

"Ah, ship, sweet ship," the hologram of a data clad female groaned pleasantly, looking in direction of the UNSC ship stationed in the distance. The soldier sitting near the controls took a look at the ship and inwardly sighed.

"Can you take care of docking, Cortana?" a woman inquired.

"I think I can do that, Doc," Cortana replied before disappearing into her holo stand.

"John, why don't you go and give them the good news?" the woman kindly said and the green clad soldier nodded; his features hidden behind a polarized visor.

She didn't need him to remove his helmet to know there was a relieved look on his hardened features. She too was happy to be in friendly territory for a change.

John left the bridge of the small ship and made his way towards the small cafeteria, where he found most of his Spartans waiting.

No, some of them were Kurt's Spartans, he remembered.

_'Little Spartans_' as Kelly had thought fitful to christen them.

At the moment, only Kelly, Fred, Linda, Lucy and Tom –the last two seniors from the Spartan III's program- were present, sharing small talk, resting on a chair, or polishing an already spotless SRS99D-S2 AMB.

The soldier in the armor branded 117 stopped for a moment, looking at the soldiers enjoying the moment of camaraderie, and that feeling of pride swelling in his chest. Sure, he had had his share of fun in several Forerunner installations, but the group in front of him had nothing to envy him. The whole experience after he and Cortana had landed on the training world of Onyx felt so far away now, despite the few days that had actually gone by.

He was sure they were thinking about the same thing that had plagued his thoughts since he and Cortana had freed the soldiers and the doctor from Onyx: What would be of them now?

Sure, there still existed a great turmoil within the remnants of the Covenant, but Humanity no longer had to worry about having so many races trying to wipe them off of the universe. Having the Elites, Grunts and Hunters on their side made him feel oddly, well, relaxed. No longer being under numerical disadvantage felt good for a change.

Surviving an intergalactic war and gaining powerful allies boosted the morale enough to make sure no more insurrectionist groups would rise in the near future. And having all these allies ensured the Spartans would be no longer needed as often as they had been just a few months ago.

Fred eyes finally noticed him and a moment later the Spartans stood up. "We arrived," was all he needed to say and their tired faces melted in relief. Sure, they were still too far from Earth, and they were going to tag along with these training vessels to return home, but it was a beginning.

"Chief, we got a problem," Cortana's voice rang above them, and John had to do his best to keep from sighing out aloud.

John made his way back to bridge, followed closely by Fred, and as soon as they both entered, Cortana appeared on her holo projector. "We just got a distress call from our friends," the AI said, nodding in direction of the UNSC ship. "It seems they have some guests who didn't like their rooms and are complaining very loudly about it."

John simply closed his eyes. _Great_.

"Set course and get us in as fast as possible."

"Already on it."

"I'll get Ash, Olivia and Mark to man the ship," Fred said, placing his helmet on and contacting said Spartans. John simply nodded. He didn't want to put doctor Halsey in any unnecessary danger.

"Damn," Cortana muttered and the three humans focused their attention on her. "I'm having problems contacting the ship's AI," she admitted, her body flashing an annoyed color. "Getting closer doesn't help either… Will have to get me in," she said, looking at John.

Spartan 117 simply nodded.

Once they were close enough, and three Spartans were on the ship's controls, John plugged Cortana's into his suit as the rest of the boarding team geared up. The ship hovered over the docking bay, holding position for a moment as six armor-clad soldiers jumped off and quickly cleared the bay. Once they were in safe ground, they waited for a moment until his HUD flashed with their ship's team signal.

Doctor Halsey was safe outside the training vessel.

"Nobody told me we were getting new models," Kelly muttered, looking back from the way they had come from. The rest of the Spartans acknowledged in silence, remembering the nine ships neatly parked in the hangar.

The designs were like nothing they had seen in their encounters with the Covenant, and none of them had anything that could hint them to a Human design.

If the invaders had used these ships to get on board, why would they bother parking them so carefully? It just didn't sit well with John.

Cortana had remained in silence for a while and it was starting to bother John. After spending almost eight months alone while they traveled blindly through space, Cortana had been very –well, much more than before- eloquent, especially with all the people they had encountered. This silent Cortana meant problems.

"Something is keeping me out of the systems," she finally growled, giving up remote entry. John nodded and pushed his team forward. They'd have to find a place to plug her in, and look at that, a terminal was ready for them.

"Here we go," John said as he retrieved Cortana and plugged her into the ship. He waited a moment for Cortana to say how easy she was going to control the situation and make his life easy… when her chip was sent flying off the terminal. Quick reflexes kept her from smashing against the opposite wall.

"Cortana, are you okay?" John asked as soon as he plugged her in his suit.

The reply he got was a long chain of curses mixed with words of outrage, more curses, unintelligible sounds, and more curses.

"I think that's a yes," Kelly said, looking around a corner before nodding at the rest of the team.

The group started to move again, advancing quickly, but finding little.

In fact nothing.

There wasn't any sign of battle since they had left the hangar, or marines –wounded or otherwise- around.

John signaled to Lucy and Tom to wait by the hangar as the other four Spartans pushed forward. They remained in radio silence as they made their way towards the bridge, trying to find the crew and get some answers, but they had to stop as they tried to cut through the cafeteria.

It looked as if somebody had released nitrogen and cooling fluids all over the place. Everything was coated in at least a foot thick ice, but this lacked the usual cloudy look from chemical made ice. This was pure, completely transparent, and judging by the way bullets was suspended on the air like icicles, quite sudden. For some reason, turrets had been placed in here, and had been used. At least once. There was no sign of marines here either, so the Spartans made their way over the ice, reaching the kitchens when the other exit showed impossible to use.

"Oh, good!" Somebody shouted and the Spartans turned on their heels, training their guns on a female marine. "Quick, the bad guys are over there! I'm going for more help!" she said before running off.

"Ah… that was weird," Cortana said after a second's silence. Linda quickly reached the corner the marine had taken off but she stopped.

"I lost her…" she quietly said, almost as if asking confirmation about a woman who had just gone by.

Kelly moved in the opposite direction, straining her suit to pick up anything, but got nothing. She shook her head and the group held position for a moment.

"Besides the fact she didn't throw herself at your feet –thanking god-, there was something off about her," Cortana said quietly and John nodded.

There was nothing unusual with that woman. Standard cut brown hair, light skin, dark eyes, average complexion, standard uniform.

It gave him a very odd feeling.

John signaled in the same direction the Marine left and the group moved on. Sure enough after a few minutes sounds of battle finally reached their suits. They moved quickly until they found the origin of gunshots. They had to retreat for a moment before a corner, and when fire ceased for a moment Kelly and Fred moved at the other side of the corridor. At that moment, they took a look down the corridor and found two armored enemies. One clad in blue, the other in red and gold.

A moment later several dozens weapons went off. As the Spartans took cover, John and Fred pulled out optical cables and trained them into the corridor. The signal arrived.

The two enemies were still standing there, the constant punishment of bullets doing nothing to bother them as most of them simply bounced off or were crushed against the unknown armors. The one in the golden armor took a hand to his helmet, pressing something, and just stared at the soldiers shooting at them. The one in blue simply stood there, judging by his body language, bored; as John started to move the prove to get a better look, he noticed the blue armor was stained in red. Looking around, John found the origin of the red fluid, and he felt his guts twisting.

There was a Marine's corpse, head and one arm torn off the torso, and the torso ripped off by the waist. Gore sprawled over the walls and the floor where the blue enemy stood.

"I hope he died quickly," Cortana whispered, but nobody said anything.

Handguns, shotguns, assault riffles and even frag grenades were used against the pair, but they just stood there. The only movements they did came from the golden soldier, who simply looked around as a new weapon was brought. Blue busied himself with a nearby wall, cleaning to gore off his hands.

After a few moments, Blue turned his attention back to the marines and Golden made the same hand movement. Somebody had brought three M19 SSM.

They must be desperate if they are ready to use rockets inside the ship.

The three marines got down on one knee, and the one on the left fired. The growl of the rockets seemed to stretch painfully until the explosion finally drowned every other sound.

"No way," Kelly whispered.

Blue and Golden were still there, looking as bored as before.

The other two marines immediately opened fire, using both rounds before the first marine could react. Four explosions later revealed the same scene than before. Golden waved his left hand around, almost as if swatting flies, but that was all.

Looking beyond, they saw the marines looking at their rocket launchers in complete confusion. The first marine finally fired his remaining round, almost as if realized he was supposed to do something.

Blue took a step forward and raised a hand in front of the incoming HEAT missile. John's enhanced vision saw in perfect detail how the blue arm pulled back, negating the movement of the missile, and effectively catching it in his hand. Blue looked with curiosity at the explosive on his hand before crushing it, releasing the explosion.

A warped laugh filled the stunned silence.

"We need bigger guns," Fred whispered over the COM and the four Spartans looked down to their weapons of choice.

Blue turned to Golden as the lights started to fail, and a nearby pipe broke off, spilling fluids over the corridor. Blue said something to Golden in a sing songed language and Golden replied in kind with a shrug. They started to move towards the marines and that triggered the action once again. More bullets bounced around until everything stopped and several marines pulled out dual colored spheres.

The plasma grenades soared through the air, turning into glowing plasma before sticking over the two soldier's bodies.

Three seconds were always too long.

"We need a nuke," Kelly whispered as Blue and Golden kept on walking. The marines made a half circle –that kept growing- as the two soldiers approached; a shout came out of the half ring, followed by a soldier holding his rifle like a club.

The weapon clanked on the ground as the impact's shock forced it off the Marine's hand. Blue simply looked in the Marine's direction before moving again. The marine looked at his hands for a moment before jumping over Golden's back… and slipping off of him the next moment. The marine tried to grab his head, arms, waist, but Golden simply kept on walking, ignoring the man but the marine kept losing his grab on the armor.

Once they had cleared the corridor, the Spartans sprung into action, hoping the marines would get the hint and clear the area.

Luckily, they did.

Golden looked to their right and then up. Interest was drawn all over Blue's stance. They shared a nod.

Golden leaned forward and in a flash he was replaced by a large sphere, roughly four feet in diameter, sporting the same glowing green lines that Golden's armor had shown. Next, blue's body flashed and then was replaced by some kind of vehicle made by a double helix twisting around a glowing ball of green plasma.

John felt a rumbling through his legs as both vehicles started to glow white.

Kelly vaulted forward, running with all she had but she was a second too late. Both soldiers shot forward, zigzagging around the stunned marines and racing around a corner. Letting out a curse, Kelly kept in hot pursuit, leaving the other three Spartans behind.

Video fed arrived to the rest of the team as they followed as fast as they could after Kelly.

They could see the blue vehicle ramming through anything that stood on its way, vaporizing everything in contact, while the sphere just seemed to keep gaining speed. As it moved there would be a moment where it slowed only to gain twice as much speed as before. Kelly was being left behind but she was close to catch up with them when they reached an open area.

Blue started to skid on the ground, leaving deep gashes on the metallic floor as the sphere ran directly to a wall. Finishing a turn, blue raised the front, digging the rear on the floor before being shot upward like a rocket. Kelly had to stop for a moment as the explosion of plasma forced her to stumble back, but her camera kept on sending its signal, showing how the sphere hit the wall and then kept on running vertically over the wall until it reached another corridor, immediately followed by the crash landing of the blue vehicle.

"Oh, hell no!" Kelly shouted as she ran in direction of the two freaks. Jumping against a wall, she pushed herself away to gain enough height and kept with the pursuit. "What the…?" Kelly stopped on her tracks, staring for a moment at a huge piece of ice covering what should be a door. The actual door had been ripped off its hinges and was lying against the wall behind her.

A few seconds later the other three Spartans arrived to see Kelly punching through the ice. Still remembering the video fed –and cringing at the way bullets bounced wildly off-, they didn't bother asking her why she wasn't using her rifle to get the job done, and instead joined in the task.

This wasn't like the crystal like ice they had found before, having a faint white tint, but they still could see Blue and Golden on the other side. For a moment, Blue tried to pull something but gave up as Golden stepped forward. Cocking her left arm back, he let out a beam out of his arm that hit a wall, then started to pull and the Spartans were able to see the outline of a door. A moment later, Blue started to pull on the door again and in no time the door was sent flying away.

The Spartans didn't bother trying to see what was happening through the ice and they just hit even harder than before.

"That should be enough!" Cortana informed them and John slapped a couple plasma grenades deep into the hole they had managed to dig. The satisfactory sound of ice shards sent flying away reached the Spartans and then rushed into room, noticing they had entered a vault.

The two soldiers were walking out of a nearby room, Golden holding two small devices that started to glow before he _pulled _them into his chest.

"Creepy," Cortana whispered, but John didn't have to ask her to be quiet. He had to agree the looks he and his Spartans were getting were pretty unnerving. Golden had a green visor that appeared to describe a V, and allowed him to see Human features behind it; Blue's helmet was featureless with the exception of a single vertical stripe of glowing green right in the middle, running all the way from the front to the back.

John still remembered the marines success a few minutes ago so he didn't bother using the weapons he had brought. Instead, the Spartans started to fan out, surrounding the two soldiers. Blue tried to step forward but was stopped by Golden; the smaller one yanked his arm free and John was sure they were glaring each other. Golden one again took a hand to his helmet and then said something to his partner.

Whatever it was made Blue let out another warped laugh and shrug, turning to Golden. Then, the ground started to groan. The Spartans looked down just in time to see the reinforced floor bending, as if it were trying to support a weight beyond the security standards it had been designed for.

Giving a mock of a military salute Blue kept on laughing, and Golden simply waved his hand.

The floor finally collapsed, taking the two soldiers with it.

The Spartans managed to hold onto something, looking down to the mess below them. They heard two more crashes and then silence. Their helmets and eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness and distance and saw the two soldiers standing below before they started to run back from the direction they had come from.

"They are going to the hangar bay!" Cortana said as the Spartans let go of the walls, landing three floors below and continuing the chase. They passed a wide hallway and turned left when they hear the roar of motors. A human vehicle.

"Who are you?" John's pace faltered for a moment but he didn't fall. He was way too used to hearing voices in his head.

"What the-?!" Cortana shouted.

"Stop trying to enter in the ship's controls. It's annoying." A young female voice replied.

"Who's this?" Cortana shouted. Oh she was angry.

"I asked first."

"You think I give a damn?"

"Okay, okay. Drynn, I'm Drynn. Now lady, could you stop trying to push me away? Samus still doesn't return, so you must let me do my job."

Cortana fell quiet but John knew better. She was far from giving up whatever she had been trying to do. If it had gotten the attention of this person, she must have been having some success.

Samus… must be one of the soldiers they were chasing.

The group of Spartans suddenly stopped when they saw a red glowing laser firing on the open area they had been about to enter. They didn't have to wait to see who was opening fire now as a Warthog drove in front of them, with a marine in the passenger seat carrying a anti-vehicle model 6 Grindell. The target: Golden.

"Yes, we need a nuke," Linda groaned as she saw another red laser hitting Golden's head, but rather than causing any damage to the soldier, the energy simply bounced off. The two soldiers ignored the Warthog and took down a corridor too small for the large vehicle to follow.

The Spartans started to feel frustrated with the whole situation.

"Can you get any image of them?" John asked as Kelly started to leave them behind once again.

"Can try, Chief," Cortana replied, but he didn't need her to elaborate to notice the doubt in his voice.

"I could help."

"You?" Cortana shouted and John knocked the back of his helmet. He didn't need another headache.

"Well, yes, you guys want to see what Sylux and Samus are doing, right? I don't see any harm in that," Drynn replied.

"Why would you do that?" Cortana managed to control her voice this time, but John could hear the edge in there.

"Well, Samus is almost back to the ship and the rest of the guys are only waiting for her to bring Ghor's ego."

John's heartbeat increased. "What happened to the soldiers in the hangar?"

"Oh, those kids? Rhundas took care of them…. Not like that! Look. I'll let your friends see too."

An image displayed in John's HUD –getting several blinking signals coming from the other Spartans at the same time- and he could see a group of aliens waiting over the ships they had found docked. None of them resembled anything they had seen from the Covenant, but one of them stood over the rest. Literally.

It was as big as a Hunter, maybe more. He sat on the ground, looking at a block of ice on the corner of the hangar.

"See? They are there. Vitals are okay; Rhundas didn't even put a hand on them. Just, you know, put them in a cage."

"I see," John said, relieved he hadn't lost any of Kurt's students. However, he found something new to focus.

A totally average looking female dressed in average military outfit.

"I knew there was something odd about her," Cortana groaned.

"Oh, yes! They are about to enter," Drynn suddenly said. "Yep, I'll start the engines, Samus and Sylux will arrive in thirty seconds."

John didn't need to figure out what that random piece of information meant when he saw Kelly throwing a frustrated kick at the doors leading towards the hangar.

"Drynn, could you be a nice girl and open the doors?" Cortana asked.

"Sorry, can't do. I'll let you in thirty seconds, kay?" Why did John do not expect this plan to work?

"We could go for a laser," Fred halfheartedly said, but everybody knew it wouldn't matter. By the time they returned the ships would have already left.

"The kids will be okay?" Cortana inquired.

"Yes, don't worry about them. We just want to leave. Not even Kanden wanted to do anything to them."

"Then, why did the guy in blue armor kill a marine?" Fred asked over the COM and he got a sigh in reply.

"Sylux is a sick bastard. Sylux won't try the same with everybody around, especially with Samus."

The video fed suddenly focused on Golden as he retrieved something from his chest and put it on an oddly shaped ship. "Ghor, welcome back! Yes Samus, on my way! Final routines in green, good to go! Bye guys, it was nice talking to you."

"Wait!" John suddenly said.

"Uh, yes?"

John knew it was dangerous trusting the enemy, but whoever this girl was appeared to be too naïve to lie. In the other hand, that could be just a ruse.

"You won't try to cause any more harm to this ship?"

"Well, technically, most damage was done by your people. The only one wanting to see blood was Sylux but Samus managed to stop it."

"You don't want to hurt anybody then?"

"Would be better if we don't."

"There is a ship orbiting this-."

"Ah! I get it. Don't worry… Yes, don't worry, already told Samus and she says we aren't gonna pick up a fight. Well, this is the goodbye then."

Audio was cut but the video went on, showing the nine alien ships abandoning the hangar, leaving the ice prison intact as promised. The video flicked for a moment before switching to another source. John recognized it as the hull of a ship and held his breath as he saw the ship with doctor Halsey and the rest of the Spartans appearing in the background.

A moment later, the aliens moved away from the UNSC vessels without giving them a second look, including the aquamarine ship Sylux had boarded.

"Four, three, two," Cortana said through COM and the hangar's reinforced doors opened. Lights and gravity went off for a moment before the ship's AI recovered control over its kingdom.

The sounds of several dozens marines was heard coming from all around them, but the Spartans didn't pay them any attention. They just went looking for Lucy and Tom, finding them where the video had last showed, already trying to break free from the ice structure.

John quickly joined the efforts to break the ice when Cortana let out a sigh. "Well, not too bad for our first day back, huh?"

John could only chuckle at that.

**_Fin_**

There you have it. X3 Sylux's fans, I hope I did justice to him. I mean, only time we see him attacking something other than Samus he pulverizes –literally- a GF trooper before he even knows what's going on; hope I managed to capture his brutality here. Also I hope Gandrayda is Gandrayda enough.

For the water thing in the beginning, Chozos can have visions when they see into water, so I was using that here with Samus trying to find out what they wanted with them. Samus isn't cyborg, but her armor creates an almost organic connection with her body, so people usually thinks she is a cyborg, robot, or something. She's pretty much human though.

For the admiral, I didn't mean to show him like a jerk; sorry if I did, but you gotta understand the Humans in Haloverse are extremely xenophobic. They just went through a very cruel war against the Covenant, the conflict even reaching Earth, then the Flood coming and finally the Elites glassing the continent to keep the infection from spreading. Remember Hod's words to the Arbiter at the end of Halo 3.

And no, I didn't make the marines weaklings, but anybody who has played Metroid knows Samus is almost indestructible. Sylux is as good if not better than her since he uses an improved prototype designed to beat Samus' Chozo suit. The most damage you receive from the enemies is from the Omega Pirate, a guy twice the size of a Scarab, hitting at point blank range and using all the power it has, and that only reduces your shield by 1 energy tank. Next most harmful thing is the Aura's laser, and an entire frigging planet powers that thing. You could say Mother Brain's laser is just as harmful, but I say it's even more harmful; it actually defeats Samus in Super Metroid, but it still isn't enough to kill her, just weaken her.

The part where the floor just gives in was inspired by one of Samus suit upgrades. It's called Gravity suit for a reason. And it also reduces friction to zero, that's why the marine couldn't hold her down.

And finally Drynn. Samus has a bioengineered computer in her ship, a chibiAurora Unit, I just decided to give her a more chibi personality.

For the Spartans, I decided to go "canon" and use the surviving Spartans after Onyx… and I'm too lazy to explain how they left the Sharpened shield, so bleh. Sorry if I didn't get their personalities right, I need help from people who actually has experience with them.

So there, end of uber long AN.

Hope you liked it, tell me if you did, tell me if you didn't so and I'll change it.

Bye!


	2. God Mode

Well, I give, a second part cuz I think I made things a bit hard to understand the first time.

I mean, really, you thought I was going to make an invincible Samus? It's canon that she's been defeated 3 or 4 times already. Here's an explanation of what happened in the Hunters' side while the Spartans came to save the day. Hope this clears any doubts from chapter 1.

And, just to make sure, if I had wanted to make Samus overpowered, I would have had her using a power bomb and vaporizing the soldiers that tried to stop them in the beginning. Or maybe using the dark cannon and let her rip the fabric of reality to create a black hole and send the marines into oblivion… or making jelly outta them with a shot of the Annihilator's sonicboom! That would have been unfair.

Oh, and in the first chapter, Gandrayda was just making up information for the admiral, she was just acting there.

To clear any confusion with the beginning of this chapter: This is set after Fusion, so Samus already had her DNA mixed with Metroid's….. The Corruption Hunters never died, they just were badly hurt by Samus and DSamus simply took her Phazon back from their damaged bodies.

Enjoy!

**_From the collection of One too many Shots, Crossovers section:_**

**Lesser of five evils**

_Chapter 2: Really thought I overpowered Samus? Think again!_

By: **_Dan Heron_**

Fear.

_Not again, please not again!_

Deep fear.

_Can't let it happen again. What can we do?_

Deep enough to do horrible things.

_Destroy her… we can't let them use her to reach Earth._

Despair settling in.

_My entire life has only seen war with the Covenant, and now this?_

Hopelessness.

Please, I can't keep doing this… I can't…

Anger.

Kill them all! Just fucking kill them!

Greed.

_We can use them, just like we used those dead Covenant._

Finality.

I think that is the only option. I just need to get some information out of them. You can start with the ships as soon as we contact Earth and then dispose of the freaks.

Its tendrils reached out, its hunger filling the darkness; spores flying through the air and bloated mockeries of life lumbering away on the horizon. Learning what others had learned before, looking for a way to keep on growing.

Then, the Devourers came.

The Devourers were efficient. Captured the spores as these tried to fight; the feast started in molecular levels, eating, nourishing, growing.

As the first spore was tasted, X knew what to do.

Brutally crushing them, tearing them apart, eating, growing.

They had technology, enough to destroy the assimilated bodies, but X don't die. Just as they were destroyed, they showered at those around them with their remains, and started to feast one again. Destroyed, feasting, destroyed, feasting, destroyed, feasting.

The collective didn't know what to do.

The X knew that, and they took advantage of that.

Never before the tide had changed, now there was a whole new ocean.

The one sided war ended when the smallest larva appeared. It chirped happily, glowing a tender and mesmerizing light. It landed on her chest, glowing excitedly; it had found a Mother! And now they could bring their family to enjoy of all that food!

Two titans waited behind Mother, basking in the feast set in front of them. So many children could grow happy with all this food!

The reptilian licked its lips, letting its body rest, making sure its eight eyes kept watch on the food. The insectoid tapped its front legs a moment and then settled down.

Children arrived. Larva, Miniroid, Alpha, Hunter, Beta, Omega. They all were here.

They all waited for their Mothers to have the first bite.

But Mothers couldn't start, not yet. There was an Alpha Mother among them, and she was the one to have the first taste. The reptilian encouraged its superior with a nudge, the insectoid letting out a musical sound out of its exoskeleton.

The X and the collective attacked her, trying to break into her armor. She causally lifted her arm, looking at those tendrils and the devouring cells trying to eat her arm away, trying to assimilate her.

Then, they turned to dust. She closed her hand, letting their ashen corpses float away on the wind. A smile turned on her lips and Samus looked back to Tallon's and Zebes's heirs. "They are delicious."

The Metroids' feast began.

+-+-+-+-+

The blond awareness returned, focusing on the pink woman in front of her.

"Show time," Gandrayda gave her a sultry smile, but Samus had been enough times there before like to blush or respond.

"Just like we planned."

"That's that, huh?"

"Nnnh. Oh, they are terrified of us."

The plan was simple, way too simple. Nobody ever thought it was a plan. Samus would play the experienced yet ignorant one, surrounded by language barriers that kept her from being useful for the little chat –reading interrogation- about to take place. Not hard to do considering she had no idea how speak the language, and she had left her translator along with her helmet and most of her armor in their host's care.

Gandrayda meanwhile would buy some time while Samus sent the mental commands to Drynn to start their little escape and let her know to stop waiting for other options. She'd just have to fall into her innocent and gullible self, and oh how much fun she had playing fool. Better than playing cold-blooded assassin.

If these guys were anything like the G.F., Samus could place this man in a high rank. Admiral maybe?

Reading the man was way too easy, not even making use of the gifts the Chozo had given her along with their blood. Disdainful, distrustful, xenophobic. She didn't even need to know the language to know what he thought of the shapeshifter.

_English, huh? _Nope, doesn't ring any bell. Sounded like the grunts used by the Jovian though.

Samus made sure to burn a couple holes with her glare, and was happy to see the man knew he was being X-rayed. Gandrayda would stop to translate bits of the conversation to Samus, confirming the scenarios they had planned beforehand.

Even with the language barrier, Samus did her best to keep from smirking and giggling at Gandrayda's shenanigans. She had known her for years and it still drove her to laughing tears seeing her acting like this; laughing in the middle of what she knew a serious conversation wouldn't look too good. Not that what they were about to do was better, but oh well.

Finally the man stood up. Intent written all over his body and Samus felt tired. _Here we go_.

Gandrayda stood up, pleading with the man, but he made sure to grant her a small portion of his precious attention for the petite spy. Pinkette turned to Samus, and the Huntress said.

"That's it, we won't see another day if we don't get out."

"Graceful retreat?" Gandrayda inquired with a twirl of her wrist.

"And flashy." The Pink Spy almost squealed. She was rubbing on her Sammy at least! "But first, ask him about something called Earth… well, hadn't seen somebody stiffen like that before," Samus commented with an amused smile.

"My pleasure, Sammy."

In the next two seconds, the man tried to pull out his gun on them but Samus had already taken it out of his grasp before he could even put his finger on the trigger. A quick look showed her she didn't know how to use or if this thing had a manual lock or if it was genetically programmed or… something told her the latter wasn't the case.

After five painful second –trying to keep from laughing as Gandrayda switched from bubbly innocent ditz to a seductress- the admiral noticed his gun in Samus's hands.

_At least_, and with that thought she crushed the metallic piece of junk. She may be a weakling by Chozo standards, but damn if she had a gargantuan strength in Human eyes.

Message delivered and understood. "Gandrayda, tell him we are gonna keep him safe," Samus said as she lifted her left arm –still covered in part of her armor- and punched the command for the plasteel's reserves she used with her most harmless marks. If things went smoothly, they'd be gone in a matter of minutes, so there was no point in using something more terminal with the poor man. Of course, a couple days worth of discomfort should be noting for an army man.

After a bit of struggle, they glued the man to the chair and the ground, not bothering to shut him up. They knew there were no cameras in their little cell –having searched beforehand for any trace of unwanted energy- so they decided to start the fun.

"Drynn, you ready?" Samus said to nobody, and a voice replied in her mind.

"Yes Samus. Already sent signal to the other Hunters. Good luck," the young voice replied and Samus nodded. She had used the interface ship-mind only through her helmet before, but after a few close calls she decided to take a step further and install an interface directly into her body. Not only it improved her hacking skills, but it'd also allow her to save Drynn's mind in case her ship was destroyed.

"Ladies first," Gandrayda said, showing the door to Samus.

"Thank you," a simple kick and the doors were blasted away, luckily hitting nobody. The two bounty hunters made quick job of the soldiers placed at both sides of the door; that taken care, Samus checked on her left arm for a holo map. Her armor wasn't too far away… in fact, it was moving towards her.

"That's what I call service," Gandrayda giggled and Samus looked up to see a green armor and golden visor.

"Weavel, what a surprise," Samus said with no surprise at all.

"Your little girl told me to give you a hand. She didn't say how close it had to be," the former general said in his synthetic voice. Synthetic, but not devoid of passion. He was grumbling.

"This is good enough," Samus admitted and sent the mental command. The biometal pieces of armor in Weavel's arms turned into energy and then floated around Samus body; with warmth washing over her body, Samus felt her body and mind fusing with the rest of her armor. She let out a content sigh as the systems flashed an _OK_; the little rest enough to patch up all the missing energy and absorb some of the environ residual energy to power up the microfactories in the suit to fill the ammo reservoirs.

"Thought they had taken your Ego," Gandrayda said as she walked along with the two towering hunters.

"Only a memory backup," the Urtragian cyborg replied with a wave of his hand. "It was complex enough to let them think it was my Ego."

A giggle escaped pink lips and Samus did her best to keep from laughing. Without Ego, cyborgs would function in the most basic commands as long as it didn't endanger their integrity, and she was sure Weavel had had to play tin toy for the last hour to avoid raising suspicious. The _glare_ Weavel shot Gandrayda was enough to confirm the thought.

"How is everybody else doing, Drynn?" Samus asked and several screens jumped in front of her for Weavel and Gandrayda to see.

A row of cells opened for the guests to take a walk. A huge yellow larva slithered out before reshaping its form into a bipedal, yellow muscles bulging up, and metallic pieces of armor decorating parts of the body, and a helmet showing four glowing eyes underneath.

"Kanden feels better," the prime product of the super soldier project stretched up his arms.

The Vhozon monk cautiously walked out, four eyes blinking in the dark of the corridor. "The feeling is shared, Brother."

The frame of another door glowed orange for a moment before cooling down. The giant Diamont walked out; his shoulder spikes digging through the metallic roof, leaving three trails behind. "Don't wanna stretch your legs, Trace?" Spire inquired in his cavernous voice.

Finally a Triskelion walked out. His detached head peered around before his rear leg segmented and split in two limbs, supporting the insectoid to walk as a bipedal. "Reeks like primate's sweat," his androgynous voice growled, shuddering as he walked out of his cell.

"Send them to the place they took their weapons to."

The next screen showed only static. "Sorry, Rhundas disabled the cameras on the cafeteria," Drynn commented.

"Why there?"

"Well, there was no other place big enough for him," Drynn said with a sigh. "Here's the last recorded thing before he escaped."

The image showed the Phrygisian hunter sitting on the floor, legs crossed, and looking positively bored. That changed when the six soldiers around him jumped into action and opened fire with the turrets positioned around the large hunter. Before the bullets could leave the barrels, a dome of subzero air frosted the area around the Hunter, reaching the turrets. The few bullets that managed to escape were frozen in the air, suspended like inversed icicles. Rhundas rose to his feet, looking around him before raising both arms. The atmosphere around him started to reach subzero temperatures in the blink of an eye, forcing the present soldiers to move away from the ice as the Phrygisian herded them out of the room before the image was cut.

"That's when the cameras froze," Drynn said.

Another screen moved forward to show the hangar. Ghor's gunship/armor/body came to life and a small female walked towards it. She could have passed as Human if it weren't for the fact she was partly transparent. A teenager with long blond hair and light skin, the image showed her punching buttons on Ghor's body and then gave a thumbs up to the camera. "His armor is set ready to help me with the work," Drynn said to Samus.

"Where's Sylux?" Samus asked.

The last screen moved forward to show a message in an unknown language. "No signal. He absorbed the energy of the room he was being held and the cameras went down. I still can track his signal, he hasn't moved from the room, but motion trackers showed several concussive impacts in the room and the soldiers vitals went flat a few seconds ago."

The screens disappeared and the three hunters shared the same silent conclusion. "The asshole is gonna kill the entire crew," Gandrayda said in a quiet tone very unlike her.

"Drynn, do you have the location of Ghor's ego?"

"Not yet. They did their best to keep that part a secret, removing it from their logs and recordings."

"They must have taken it with my backup," Weavel said, starting to run, "Drynn, link me to Ghor's unit."

"Starting sequences… It'd be better if you can come down here."

"Already on my way," and with that the cyborg was off.

"Drynn, seal all the doors leading towards Sylux. Isolate him from the rest of the crew," Samus ordered as she started to follow Sylux signal, Gandrayda on her heels.

"I'm sorry Samus, but Sylux took too much energy from the ship, I can't work with the instruments near him or seal him in his current location. We could seal them manually-."

"Leave it to me!" Gandrayda chirped.

"You heard her Drynn, give her the coordinates," Samus said, extending her hand to the shapeshifter. The pink woman put her hand over Samus and pulled a disk out of the palm. With holopad in hand, Gandrayda gave a smile to Samus. "How about this?" without breaking her pace, Gandrayda's body shifted into more Human standards, changing her skin, eyes and hair pigmentation, length of her hair, and finally her body was covered in the same clothes they had seen wearing a female previous to their imprisonment.

"Boring," Samus and Drynn replied.

"Perfect!" and activating her holopad, Gandrayda was off.

"Rhundas is already making his way towards the hangar. I'll take the other hunters around all the soldiers I can find," Drynn said after Samus took a sharp turn to the left. "Uh… oh damn. Samus, they managed to send a distress signal."

"Don't worry, we'll be long gone before somebody picks it up," Samus tried to reassure herself and her AU.

"Unfortunately, somebody was already coming this way. ETA one minute."

Samus simply sighed. "Can't be helped. Make sure to leave them in silence as long as you can, and tell the other hunters about this."

A screen jumped in her HUD showing the hangar again as Weavel made his entry. The green clad cyborg walked behind the large battle suit; taking a hold of the shield generator, Weavel pulled himself up as his legs remained on the ground. From where his waist should be, several cords started to connect with the machine, as the blond girl appeared to press more commands.

"How long until you can get me Ghor's location?"

The synthetic voice replied. "Three minutes."

Right, there's nothing easy in this universe. "How's Gandrayda doing?"

"Already has most sections sealed," Drynn replied. "I'm sending her to the generators room to help me with the energy issue."

"Good. Send me all the information you can as soon as possible," Samus cut her transmission as she arrived to a dark corridor. Adjusting to the darkness, her visor took in small details like the bent shape of the doors in front of her and the busted lights. Pushing the door open she saw the blue clad hunter kneeling next to a pile of bloody flesh.

"I thought the G.F. was fragile," the androgynous voice came out of the blue suit's speakers. "These guys are just begging you to step on them."

"We gotta get out," Samus simply said.

"Haven't had my fill," Sylux replied.

"Now."

"Gotta do better than that." Samus knew there was a smile.

"Okay, Drynn, take the Delano 7 and put her in that big cannon this ship use. Fire at will."

"Aye aye!" the transmission was directed to Sylux suit.

"Okay, you got my attention," the terrorist stood up, walking past Samus. "You coming?"

"I lead," Samus walked past Sylux, brushing shoulders roughly with him. "We need to pick something up first," Samus said as she saw in her HUD a message from Drynn. _ETA, twenty seconds. _"Hurry."

"Drynn, tell Weavel and Rhundas to avoid contact with the new ship," Samus sent the mental command and the computer replied with a heart in Samus' HUD.

"Why so many turns?" Sylux asked, but she knew he was just trying to push her buttons.

"No! Samus, some soldiers managed to manually open the doors Sylux disabled. These cameras aren't helping either. Seems like a large group went in the opposite direction, but-."

Samus's radar picked a signal before Drynn could finish.

"Freeze!" the translator installed on her suit making quick corrections to the speech patterns and delivered the message for Samus.

_Fuck_, Samus thought as they turned around to see –a hundred feet away- a soldier holding a weapon and running after them.

Apparently Sylux's translator was working too for he raised his arms in a surrender stance. Samus immediately grew weary, but she surrendered too. No need to kill the poor man.

Her radar started to pick up more signals, much further away but closing in quickly. Luckily Drynn had done a good job, and they were taking their sweet time.

Samus mentally sent commands to her visor and she started to survey the corridor they were standing on. Thermal vision showed a large network of electrical energy still available underneath them and inside the walls. "Drynn, can you increase the energy directed to this corridor?" having extra energy available to absorb would be do a good backup in case these soldiers somehow counted with more advanced weapons.

"Yes," a pause, "Gandrayda already took care of that. Samus, two more minutes for Ghor's coordinates."

Samus nodded. They could avoid a bloodbath if they acted cool for now. Another screen appeared in Samus's visor. Those six soldiers in power armors that had just boarded could bring problems; at least Weavel and Rhundas managed to go unnoticed.

"Put your hands higher!" the soldier's voice snapped Samus back from her thoughts just in time to see Sylux's hand darting forward, too fast for the soldier.

Disarming the man, the blue hunter then proceeded to rip his arm clean off without effort. "Man, not even a basic power suit," Sylux's voice came distorted, but Samus knew the terrorist was clicking his tongue.

"Put him down!" Samus ordered, her arm cannon flaring to life, growing as energy started to charge in its barrel. She knew it would be nowhere near to even damage his armor, but she needed to recover control, and fast.

"Okay," came the simple reply. Samus simply diverted her eyes as she heard the first sound of flesh tearing, immediately followed by a wet thump. He turned his head towards her and –even without any hint of what could lay under that helmet- she knew he was grinning, waiting for her to open fire.

The huntress dispelled the built up energy and instead started to download the map Drynn was sending. She had a visual of the ship and probable location of Ghor's ego, but she remained where she was standing. The narrow corridor would minimize the damage they could cause when the large group of soldiers finally found them.

"We stay here," Samus coldly said, switching to her Scan Visor.

"Sounds good to me," Sylux replied, kicking the still twitching corpse against a wall, making a splatter impression all over it.

"And don't attack them."

Sylux twisted his head in a curious gesture. "And why, should I do that?"

"You mean you can't stand a little punishment?" she made sure to put enough sugar in there.

Sylux's head tilted to the other side.

"Scanners show they have metal encased weapons," she said, looking down to the weapon at their feet. _Capable of firing a spread of slugs in a wide range, better suited for close encounters_, her logs read. "Can't hurt more than a pissed off geemer."

"Why are we waiting?" the mockery in his voice had been replaced by his business hunter tone.

"We need a minute to get Ghor's ego's position," Samus casually shrugged. "Of course, if you need to run so badly to your ship, be my guest. Drynn will show you the quickest exist."

"I think I can wait," Sylux simply shrugged, putting both hands behind his back. Samus didn't have time to reply as the first shots were fired.

_Seems the bloody mangled corpse didn't go unnoticed_, Samus dryly thought as she stood put.

True to her words, the rounds fired upon them couldn't cause more damage than the shelled parasite, but it was still as annoying. Several calibers were brought and Samus scanned them all, finding nothing worth the worry, they could spend almost an hour here before their shields started to reach critical levels.

Of course, considering they were standing over an overloaded power grid –thanks to Drynn and Gandrayda-, they simply had to siphon the built up energy bellow them to refill their shields. She had to admit the G.F. had done a great job with their systems when they tried to imitate the Chozo's energy manipulation design. It wasn't perfect, and it was reduced to only a few certain types of energy like electricity, but it was enough for situations like infiltrating a space station or a vessel.

Despite more than feeling the punch on some of these weapons, the stolen energy was enough to outmatch the strain on the shields. Heck, even Sylux's friendly shove had carried more punch than what they were enduring now.

An image popped up her visor and Samus found a group of four soldiers behind them, way behind. _They left two behind…_ she noted. Considering the fire they were enjoying, it made sense these soldiers would wait for a better chance before running to get shot along with them.

"Hey, look at that," Sylux nonchalantly commented and Samus looked at the large group of soldiers. _Rocket launchers…_

"Have you ever gotten hit by a Dragoon?" Samus nonchalantly replied.

Sylux simply turned his head in her direction.

"Well, it's something like this."

The rocket flew through the corridor, aiming directly at Samus. Closing her eyes and clenching her jaw she prepared for impact. She grunted as she explosion pushed her back a few centimeters, but noted there was little damage to her shields. Only ten units out of the hundred in a single tank. _Well, Dragoons seem to hit harder… then again they fire several missiles at the same time. _

Before the smoke could clear, Samus waved her arm around, refilling part of her current tank. Her visor found and interpreted where the energy of the explosion was still present, appearing in front of her eyes as yellow glows, and she absorbed it. No need to let it go to waste.

She unclenched her jaw, letting out a strained groan. It was starting to sting.

"I like that sound," Sylux said with a jingle in his voice.

"Asshole."

Before more pleasantries could be exchanged, two more soldiers emptied their rocket launchers on the hunters with slightly more success this time. Still, Samus simply absorbed the residual energy around them, but Sylux remained on his place –a few centimeters back from where he had started, though.

The first soldiers to open fire at Samus finally fired his second round, aiming after Sylux this time. With little effort, the blue hunter caught the rocket in his hand. Not wasting the chance, Samus scanned the projectile; much larger than the ammunition used by the dragoon, but surpassed in pure output potential by the much smaller Elyssian weapon. Not a second later, Sylux crushed, engulfing himself in flames.

That androgynous laugh broke out again.

_Asshole_, she thought, not bothering to see what happened to Sylux, focusing instead on the soldiers. By the look on their faces this was supposed to have brought them down.

"That felt good," Sylux said, siphoning the entirety of the energy in the grin below them, causing a short circuit on the corridor and submerging it in darkness.

"Yay," she dryly replied with a shrug. Her HUD came to life.

"Samus, here's the path," Drynn said and her visor interpreted the information as a glowing corridor that would lead her to Ghor's ego. She quickly sent the data to Sylux.

"We are leaving." The blue soldier didn't bother with a reply this time and simply followed Drynn's information. Guns went off again, and deprived of their previous source of energy, they started to move more cautiously, trying to keep the minimum amount of their bodies exposed. So far they had done a great job at appearing invincible in the soldiers' eyes, but thanks to Sylux little stun they'd have to be more careful. Fortunately they already had a new target, far away from the current fight.

"Look, they put lights on them this time," Sylux chuckled and Samus looked up at a group of soldiers holding spheres. Scan visor still running, Samus had a second to scan the spheres as they turned into glowing spheres of plasma; the scan finished right before the spheres latched onto their chests. Technology radically different than the one used in the previous grenades, highly intelligent, much more damaging…

"This is gonna hurt," Samus said, placing her left hand over the plasma grenades. Sylux tried to pull off the ones that landed on him, but only succeeded in covering his fingers in the sticky plasma.

The explosives went off, stopping the hunters for a moment before they siphoned the spent energy of the explosions. There was considerably less wasted energy, but enough to keep their current tank from depleting.

"They are starting to piss me off," Sylux grunted, but the distortion wasn't enough to keep Samus from noticing the strain in his voice. She suppressed the grunt coming from her beaten chest as best as she could; she didn't feel like getting more lip from the terrorist.

Somebody shouted from among the half circle surrounding the Hunters and Sylux turned right in time to get a long weapon smashed against his head. Samus blinked once, wondering if she should stop Sylux from killing this soldier… but the thought quickly left fled her mind as the same soldier tried to use a throw on Samus. Unfortunately for him, she had loaded her Gravity upgrade for the outer space operation, and he was unable to hold onto her body offering zero friction. That didn't stop him from keep trying.

"Think these guys are gonna have more success?" Sylux idly said, sending a signal behind Samus towards the four suited soldiers running after them.

"I don't feel like finding out," Samus said, looking right and up, beyond several plates of reinforced alloys and wiring. "There's Ghor's ego," Samus said, turning towards Sylux.

The blue hunter simply nodded his reply, studying the map Drynn had sent. Long and narrow corridors, the bulk of the enemy force right in front of them already… they practically had all the room they could need.

The Lockjaw system activated, turning his body into plasma and his armor turning into two tetracarbon ceramic-alloy blades, just as Samus activated the Morphball, looking like a harmless sphere.

"_They are approaching_," Samus sent the message to Sylux and he replied with a light. Both soldiers started to charge energy and blasted off before another soldier could reach them. They zigzagged around the present soldiers before running down a lonely corridor, wide open for them. Samus noted with a little smile the fact Sylux hadn't placed any mine among the soldiers; he could have easily vaporized a large number of them, but miraculously that didn't happen. Then again, Drynn still had the Delano 7 hostage.

Samus noted a soldier chasing after them, running at far more speed than she had thought possible for these soldiers. She didn't waste time trying to figure out why as she and Sylux simply picked up more speed. The terrorist vaporizing anything that could store any energy to refill his tanks, but that didn't made him stay too far behind. Following Drynn's directions, the two hunters reached what looked like a resting area, noticing that the holo map showed the path continuing three floors up. Not missing a beat Samus kept racing after a wall while Sylux skidded on the floor. The Spyderball system in Samus Morphball activated as she followed the wiring behind the wall, carrying her to her destination while Sylux boosted the Lockjaw as he placed it in a vertical position. Releasing the built up energy Sylux was launched up after Samus, pushing back at that lonely soldier that had been stepping on their heels.

Upon landing, the two hunters left their alternate form, reassuming bipedal shape. The map showed their destination right in front of them; Sylux entered in action, ripping off the reinforced door in front of them. Both hunters stepped in and Samus reconfigured her cannon. Releasing a faint white mist, Samus fired a charged shot of her ice beam, covering the door previously filled by a door. Sylux went after another door, much larger than the previous one, and started to pull. Not much success this time.

Right then, they started to hear a pounding and Samus looked towards the ice to see the same soldier than before opening fire to the door, and seeing the bullets bouncing off, started to pound into the ice with his hands.

"That's perseverance," Samus idly commented before powering up her Grapple lasso. She threw a punch at the door and the energy beam connected with the reinforced door. Sylux once again started to pry the door open as Samus started to pull from behind him. From her point of view, Samus saw more of the soldiers in power suit joining the first. The groan of metal reached her ears and Samus threw the door behind her shoulder, the holo map compensating as the road was cleared, showing their mark. Samus casually walked into the reinforced chamber, finding Ghor's ego and Weavel's backup. There was an explosion outside the room and Samus winced; carefully picking up both pieces of technology, Samus stored both units inside her own armor.

Just as she stepped out, four soldiers in power suit started to surround them. They had weapons on them but they didn't make an attempt for them. Sylux started to move after one of them but Samus held his arm back. The blue hunter shot a glare at Samus as he jerked his arm free but she wasn't fazed.

"Wait," Samus said in Common, having turned off her translator some time ago.

"What?" replied, emulating Samus's actions. No need to let the enemy know what they were talking about.

"I'm going to collapse this room," she said, looking down as she activated her scan visor.

Sylux couldn't help laughing out aloud and shrug. Taking that as confirmation, Samus charged her gravity upgrade, sending its properties around her suit. The floor started to groan and Sylux sent a mock military salute to the four soldiers and Samus waved them goodbye as the entire floor collapsed under Samus' colossal weight.

"Ow, dammit!" Samus groaned as she stood up, nursing her rear. They had gone through only three floors before she turned the gravity upgrade off; it was still enough discomfort for her.

"That was fun," Sylux grunted, pulling himself up from his throne of debris. That was enough to make Samus forget about her own pain.

"We are leaving," Samus said as she entered Morphball again. The Lockjaw activated too and the two vehicles started to move back, following the new holomap towards the hangar. Their radars started to pick up new signals, trying to create traps for the hunters, but the hunters simply gained more speed before the soldiers could finish setting up their plans.

The hunters left their alternate vehicles when they reached a corridor too small for Sylux's Lockjaw to pass through. Just as they took the first step a laser hit Samus on the back of her head.

Samus bit the curse in her lips and simply ran after a laughing Sylux. _Okay, that was harder than those rockets_, she thought, checking her energy tanks; none depleted yet, that was good. "_Drynn_," she sent the mental message but after a second without reply she insisted, "_Drynn, any problems?"_

"Oh, nothing Samus, just chatting with the guys running after you. They have a very interesting AI in one of their armors!" Drynn excitedly said.

_"If it's enough to make you so giddy it must be pretty impressive," _Samus said with a smile.

"Hee hee, sorry. The hunters are waiting for you in the hangar, including Gandrayda. I already placed a few routines to keep them from following us. We have two soldiers in custody here, well, Rhundas has. Didn't hurt them."

Samus nodded, "Drynn, see if you can find some information about the soldiers that responded to the distress signal. You can give it to me once we are out of here."

"Roger."

The two hunters found no more opposition or obstacles as they reached the hangar. Samus cast a brief look to the crystal prison on the corner of the hangar where Rhundas was tapping the floor with two guns. Apparently he already had claimed his trophies for this incursion; much better than one of those vehicles that had landed a hit on her. Their size wouldn't have stopped the Phrygisian from strapping one of those vehicles on his ship.

"Weavel!" she called out for the Urtragian as she tossed him his backup. The general caught it as he jumped over his legs, reattaching his body and walking towards his ship. The rest of the soldiers jumped into their ship's controls and Gandrayda climbed into Samus' ship. Picking Ghor's ego carefully, she returned the cyborg's other half.

"What took you so long?" the cyborg's voice warped into a menacing growl but Samus didn't pay attention. She had worked enough years with the Wotan to be used to his battle armor's split personality.

"Just making sure somebody didn't break you," Samus nonchalantly said, patting the huge battle suit.

"Thank you," Ghor replied much more quietly, showing a small part of his true self. The battle suit started its reconfiguration, getting ready for intergalactic travel.

"Don't mention it," Samus said as she boarded her gunship. The inside of the ship came to life the moment Samus was on board, already preparing systems for the huntress' command. Gandrayda was already there, lounging on the small bed waiting for Samus.

"Welcome home!" the spy said returning to her pinkete self.

"We're leaving," Samus said, taking seat and started to punch holo keys. The ship left the ground and started to turn.

"Hey Samus, there's a ship orbiting this vessel. They only have a little crew, and I don't think they can present any threat," Drynn suddenly said, her image appearing from a holo stand.

"That's good, I just want to leave. Tell the other ships about this and prepare a gate."

"Understood," and Drynn disappeared into her stand.

"Ready to kick some Kriken exo-butt?" Gandrayda said, leaning on the back of the captain's seat.

Samus simply chuckled, pushing the thrusters to the max and leaving the vessel behind.

**_Fin_**

Well, that's the other part of the story, focusing more in the Hunters than the Spartans. Hope I managed to explain why they appeared to be invincible in the first chapter. I thought you guys would realize I wouldn't overpower one side considering what I had said in the beginning of chapter one.

Other things that may be unknown for Haloverse fans: Delano 7 is Sylux ship, another G.F. attempt at copying Samus technology; it acts a bit like Samus gunship, but not that powerful.

Samus can see several kinds of energy and use it to refill her shields. That's why when you destroy a missile or plasma attack you see energy floating around. The energy released by those attacks can be used to refill tanks. The same with enemies' life-force, that's why when you kill an animal you can see energy floating out of them.

Also, yes, small animals cause some damage, but it'd be very boring if you could just waltz through them, that's why the game indicates damage. But then again, if you stop to consider about it, it makes sense these animals being extremely dangerous.

The animals in Tallon IV have had 50 years to evolve, using Phazon to mutate more quickly, become stronger, smarter, more resilient, and just plain deadly. I mean they can even break into a Space Pirate installation as if it were paper.

The ones in Aether have evolved alongside with the Luminoth, and even though they are a race of the stars, they still are capable of war; look at Quadraxis, the Luminot built it. And the Ing, so yeh, once again Phazon powered, infects the other half of the fauna.

The animals in Bryyo have evolved using fuelgel as part of their main diet, heck the gel ray swims in that thing! Anything that can survive devouring the next most dangerous thing to radioactive material tends to grow a bit strong. And the reptilicus and warp hounds use magic besides their energy manipulation and natural skills.

Finally, yes X can beat the Flood. X works at a cellular level, and even if you destroy the X it just returns to a fluid form before reassuming another assimilated form or the one it had before you destroyed it; and X not only consumes flesh, it also copies memories and personality of its food. It could pretend to be more Flood while it eats more of it. Only Metroids can defeat the X and that's because they suck the life force out of them, sucking their life if you want. Even at cellular level, Metroids can eat X, and the same goes for everything else. As long as it has some energy, even electricity, Metroids can eat it. That of course can corrupt them, like when they started to eat Phazon, but that's another story.

Ri2, I hope this chapter cleared any question you may have had in the first chapter.

Karpiklaani, glad you liked it X).

Gersquin065, yep, as I mentioned in this chapter, their weapons did affect their shields, but not enough to bring them to critical levels.

CorineCairyn and Mr. Plankton: same as above. And Corine look the one after this.

Talon88.1, hope you liked how I described what was going on inside their suits. Yep, of course they are gonna feel the discomfort, but after almost 20 years of the same punishment I think they grow to deal with it, especially if they see it coming.

Asator, glad you liked it. I know this isn't exactly a sequel, but I hope you enjoyed it too.

Well, that's all for now. Besides the Kriken going Viking on the G.F., not much came in the ideas section, so I doubt I'd write something epic… maybe something enjoyable to read, but that's all.

….. I keep thinking of the hunters and the Spartans enjoying a meal in a lonely green planet though.

Oh, before I forget, the Metroids created in Zebes grow exoskeletons that make them look like reptiles, while the ones bred in Tallon have an insectoid look, like Metroid Prime.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, tell me if you did, tell me if you didn't so I can change it.

See ya!


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